The Correct Bible

I just posted a comment to Charisma magazine’s online article, “Is Today’s Bible Correct?” The article cites the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls as supporting the “authenticity of the 1611 translation” of the King James Bible’s Old Testament. I wanted to point out that the 1611 KJV contained books that modern Protestant Bibles omit (but Catholic Bibles contain):

When discussing the “authenticity of the 1611 translation,” remember that the 1611 edition of the King James Bible contained 80 books, not 66. The first 66-book KJV was published in 1885. That original 80-book KJV had the full canon, which also matches the Catholic bible. Modern groupings of those same 80 books typically are printed as 73 books. Christians should be encouraged to read the complete Bible, not the stripped-down 66-book versions.

Catholic and Protestants originally included the same number of books in the Bible, as can be seen in English by the 1609 Douay Rheims Version (Catholic) and the 1611 King James Version (Protestant). The chief difference in these editions is that Protestants moved some Old Testament books into a section labeled “Apocrypha” which they placed at the end of the Old Testament.

Later in history – in the 1700s and 1800s – Protestant Bible publishers gradually began issuing editions that excluded the so-called Apocrypha, eventually making the 66-book Bible the standard among Protestants at the end of the 1800s. However, Catholic Bibles to this day include all of the original books. Note that the division of books in the 1600s was different than today: the 80 books found in the KJV equate to the 73 books in modern Catholic editions. For example, the KJV divided Daniel, Song of the Three Children, Story of Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon into separate books, while Catholic Bibles consider them all to be chapters of the Book of Daniel.

One excellent resource – which also happens to be free, since it is now in the public domain – is the book entitled How We Got The Bible by Henry Graham. It was published in 1911, which was the 300th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible. Now that we are only a few months away from the 400th anniversary of the KJV, you might find it to be a fresh read in spite of it being nearly a century old. Read it online at:http://www.catholicapologetics.info/apologetics/protestantism/wbible.htm